Burnout is a problem.  I’d like to be hard on the problem and easy on the person, easy on you. Because burnout is a result, not a cause. And so you have to treat the root causes of everything that’s happening around you to get burnout under control.

If any reasonable person were placed into the work environment that we are probably seeing, even if it’s an excellent work environment simply the demands of our job can lead to burnout. This is not a personal problem, although there are personal solutions, reactions, and responses you can have that are useful, this is more of a systemic problem.

Burnout is a result not a cause. It’s an effect, not a cause. The problem is, burnout itself can then have effects on you and other people, and sometimes it can be deadly.

 Let’s be hard on the cause, which is the root causes of things that drive your burnout throughout your life and your career:

Time pressure, loss of control, loss of autonomy, all of the things that will lead to poor time-management, poor response, decreased energy, poor self-care, all of the things that add to and increase your burnout.

The primary thing is you always need to drill down and drill all the way down back to those primary drivers of your burnout, which could be your work environment, compensation, the demands that are placed on you, that may be unreasonable lack of health, lack of autonomy, lack of control, all of the things that drive your burnout.

Let’s get down to the root of those. And if you can find one, find your one, make that one A and then write down one thing you can do and when you’re going to do it.

So what’s the problems?

What’s a potential solution?

And when you’re going to do it?

Those are the first three steps to getting things moving in the right direction. So let’s be hard on the problem. Not hard on you.

Physicians are already very hard on themselves.

We’re here to help you.  Grab a copy of my book, “The Doctor is Burned Out: A Physicians Guide to Recovery” and any of the resources that we have on our website, the blogs, the videos, these weekly video tips, “Burnout Recovery for You, the Master Class” — it’s a great course eight week course to get you recovered in rapid fashion.

Always remember, burnout recovery is for you!

~Jeff Moody, MD